if tachyon particles cannot drop below the speed of light, can tachyon waves?

[infomancr]

How permeable do you think the "air gap" between tachyon particles and slow particles are to energy transmission? i.e. tachyon particle waves incidentally interacting with our lame by comparison slow particles. self.askscience

If the below is too long feel free to pretend it doesn't exist. I'm just providing further context into the question if anyone is interested.

So energy travels through particles via waves. And since particles have mass, with the exception of photons, the velocity of any wave when measured by particle velocity would never exceed c, right? But if tachyon waves do exist would it be possible that even if only in limited circumstances, such as when particles collide at nearing light speeds, that stray "tachyon particle waves" may find the right mass-bound slow particles to excite and thereby result in a class of exotic "inverted-matter?"

It seems if even however rare, which I don't necessarily believe it to be, there would still be a variety of prevailing observable and seemingly sporadic effects--all with a common mechanism of action.

If true, what implications do you guys think this would have?

I imagine the permeability of the air gap between tachyon particles and slow particles may explain, among many other things, why mass increases with velocity. Also, any experts on the Higgs Field have any thought on this?

Thanks for reading. I'll value any responses, even bad and malicious ones.

Edited November 27, 2014 by infomancr

[elfmotat]

• What is an "airgap"?
• What do you mean by "permeable... to energy transmission"?
• Energy does not "travel through particles via waves."
• Not all particles, other than photons, have mass. Gluons, for example.
• What do you mean by "measured by particle velocity"?
• What do you mean by "channel energy into mass-bound particles"?
• What do you mean by "mass-bound particles"?
• What do you mean by "excite exotic matter into measurability"?
• What do you mean by "2-way matter-energy processing bottleneck"?
• What does this have to do with the Higgs field?

 

Sorry, but your post is pure gibberish. Please don't make up nonsensical jargon and pretend it has meaning.

[infomancr]

• What is an "airgap"?

An "air gap" is a figure of speech meaning an isolating medium.

• What do you mean by "permeable... to energy transmission"?

Are slow particles capable reacting to tachyon particles in such a way that would result in any sort of proportional change occurring in both as a result of the interaction?

• Energy does not "travel through particles via waves."

I believe it does: Energy during transmission produces a waveform made of discreet energy packets. We call these energy packets particles.

• Not all particles, other than photons, have mass. Gluons, for example.

Thanks. I didn't consider elemental particles for some reason.

• What do you mean by "measured by particle velocity"?

Energy travels via oscillating wave. We measure the characteristics of the waveform by counting how many peaks are present per length of time to determine its frequency and how high the peaks are to determine amplitude. These peaks can also be referred to as particles depending on the context. As far as I know, photons are the only particles that can travel at the velocity of c, right?

• What do you mean by "channel energy into mass-bound particles"?

React in such a way that would result in any sort of proportional change occurring between a tachyon and a slow particle?

• What do you mean by "mass-bound particles"?

A particle with mass (that can not have a velocity faster than approaching the speed of light.)

• What do you mean by "excite exotic matter into measurability"?

Produce a wave function that can be reliably detected and measured i.e. observed.

• What do you mean by "2-way matter-energy processing bottleneck"?

If it is possible for tachyon particles to interact with slow particles, and its occurrence is more or less probable upon certain conditions, as we approach the conditions that would increase the probability, there would be more interactivity between tachyon and slow particles.

• What does this have to do with the Higgs field?

I was asking the same question.

 

Thanks for your response.

[elfmotat]

An "air gap" is a figure of speech meaning an isolating medium.

 

I still don't know what that means.

 

 

Are slow particles capable reacting to tachyon particles in such a way that would result in any sort of proportional change occurring in both as a result of the interaction?

 

Tachyons are not allowed in modern field theory. Tachyons make possible causality violation, which is not something that you want in a sensible theory. Theories of scalar interacting tachyons have been worked out though.For example: http://journals.aps.org/pr/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.174.1808

 

(You might need access to a university library to read it.)

 

 

• Energy does not "travel through particles via waves."

I believe it does: Energy during transmission produces a waveform made of discreet energy packets. We call these energy packets particles.

 

Saying "particles are wavepackets with energy" is not quite the same thing as saying "energy travels through particles via waves." The former makes sense. The latter doesn't.

 

 

Energy travels via oscillating wave. We measure the characteristics of the waveform by counting how many peaks are present per length of time to determine its frequency and how high the peaks are to determine amplitude. These peaks can also be referred to as particles depending on the context. As far as I know, photons are the only particles that can travel at the velocity of c, right?

 

The peaks represent places where you're likely to find a particle. They are not by themselves particles. Any massless particle will travel at c. Photons, gravitons, gluons...

 

 

• What do you mean by "channel energy into mass-bound particles"?

React in such a way that would result in any sort of proportional change occurring between a tachyon and a slow particle?

 

What do you mean by "proportional change"? It seems quite vague.

 

 

• What do you mean by "excite exotic matter into measurability"?

Produce a wave function that can be reliably detected and measured i.e. observed.

 

Wave functions cannot be measured at all. They're the square root of a probability distribution. So I'm still not quite sure what you mean.

 

 

• What does this have to do with the Higgs field?

I was asking the same question.

 

Well, you must have had some reason for mentioning it. I just don't see how it relates.

[ajb]

Well, you must have had some reason for mentioning it. I just don't see how it relates.

The scalar field [math]\phi[/math] that gives rise to the Higgs boson is, in the uncondensed phase tachyonic. You see that the field is unstable at the false vacua [math]\phi =0[/math] as we have the famous 'Mexican hat' potential. Tachyons are quantum mechanically unstable and always signal the presence of false vacua. This 'collapse' into standard particles is spontaneous and comes under the generic name of 'tachyon condensation'.

[elfmotat]

The scalar field [math]\phi[/math] that gives rise to the Higgs boson is, in the uncondensed phase tachyonic. You see that the field is unstable at the false vacua [math]\phi =0[/math] as we have the famous 'Mexican hat' potential. Tachyons are quantum mechanically unstable and always signal the presence of false vacua. This 'collapse' into standard particles is spontaneous and comes under the generic name of 'tachyon condensation'.

 

It was my understanding that the negative mass² at [math]\phi=0[/math] is just a way of saying that the field is not stable at this value. I don't believe you can get any "real" tachyon quanta from the theory.

[ajb]

It was my understanding that the negative mass² at [math]\phi=0[/math] is just a way of saying that the field is not stable at this value. I don't believe you can get any "real" tachyon quanta from the theory.

Exactly, they are quantum mechanically unstable and spontaneously decay very quickly. You don't expect to see them. In the theory they are a sign that you have taken the 'wrong' vacuum to expand about.

[MigL]

So ( because I'm still not clear ) is the uncondensed scalar field tachionic in name only, implying that it's unstable and you're heading down the wrong path ?

Or does the uncondensed phase allow for tachions ( which I thought no theory is happy with as it implies something has gone wrong ) ?

[ajb]

Or does the uncondensed phase allow for tachions ( which I thought no theory is happy with as it implies something has gone wrong ) ?

But this is unstable and quickly decays into standard particles. This drives the system into a stable configuration without tachyons.

Edited November 30, 2014 by ajb

[Lucious]

The scalar field [math]\phi[/math] that gives rise to the Higgs boson is, in the uncondensed phase tachyonic.

 

 

And it is probably related to the zero point energy field.

 

Photons of light are often virtual particles that have energy and no mass in the zero point range, so a Tachyon is a photon that can exceed the speed of light but only for short periods. It has been postulated that tachyons can be detected by the emission of Cherenkov radiation but how to do this is uncertain as of yet. Some versions of string theory absolutely insist on their existences.

 

In fact, we can loosely say Tachyons exist today as electrons move through superconductors at superluminal speeds. This is of course due to changing the medium in which the electron moves, but is evidence in itself that tachyonic capabilities are not without the realm of possibility in the terms of the relativistic laws.

 

You know, it wouldn't be so strange to find out that light speed is just some special speed - Tachyon and Bradyon speeds could represent a symmetry in the equations that fit nicely to solve some of the most outstanding problems, such as particle entanglement and interaction at large distances. Something myself have been trying to find solutions to using matrix mechanics, unfortunately my last post was a bit of a mess but some folks helped to clean it up.

 

It was my understanding that the negative mass² at [math]\phi=0[/math] is just a way of saying that the field is not stable at this value.

 

you know, when [tex]\phi = 0[/tex] at the Mexican hat ground state, it's not really viewed as unstable technically. It's actually a very stable Goldstone Boson fluctuating softly at zero point scales. It's only when energy is added to the Boson do we find a flux of the system and it transposes into a particle of mass: In other words, the Higgs Boson gobbled up the energy of the Higgs Boson and used that energy to create a charge of mass.